UPD Sky Broadband UK Officially Launches New Sky Hub Wireless Router

Sky Broadband (BSkyB) has today officially announced the launch of its new Sky Hub router, which has been “designed and built by Sky’s in-house engineering team” and delivers improved wireless speeds and range by automatically scanning for and selecting the best available wifi channel.

The new router, which we first reported on earlier this month (here), will come as standard for customers joining or switching their broadband to Sky from the 18th October 2012. Existing customers will need to take the new router for a one-off fee of £39 (plus £2.18 delivery), although this will rise to £69 from 18th January 2013.

Lyssa McGowan, Director of Communications Products at Sky, said:

“Designed and built exclusively for Sky customers, this state-of-the-art router delivers unbeatable wireless range throughout the home meaning customers can get online in parts of their home they couldn’t before. Further enhancing the complete Sky experience, customers will benefit from greater connectivity, whether they’re enjoying Sky Go in the garden, checking Facebook in the bedroom or interacting with zeebox on the sofa.

Alongside the UK’s only totally unlimited broadband service, free public WiFi and unbeatable customer satisfaction, Sky Broadband goes from strength to strength.”

New subscribers have already begun to receive the router.

Full Specifications – Sky Hub (SR101):
* Wireless: WiFi N 144mbps on a single channel (4 2 MIMO aerials inside)
* Sleek but familiar and faster web-based User Interface
* WiFi Alliance Certification
* WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)
* Ethernet: 4 x 100mb Ports with activity LEDs
* ADSL2+ Socket
* Built in PSU
* Sky Smart Range – Automatically selects the optimum wireless channel
* 4 Simple LED icon indicators (Power, Wireless, Internet, Sky+ HD)
* Energy efficient – complies with the “Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption of Broadband Equipment” within Europe
* Router will be used for both ADSL & Sky Fibre (FTTC)
* WiFi Chipset: Broadcom 6362

As we said before, the lack of Gigabit Ethernet ports is somewhat disappointing, especially since broadband connectivity is only going to get faster over the next few years and Gigabit capability is often a good indication of the chipsets ability to cope with such advancements.

Take note that our picture makes the router look quite fat but it’s actually a tiny little box that’s around 13cm long at the base and a little bit taller when standing up. It’s also a lot thinner than the picture makes out (not sure why this one is being used in some of the PR).

UPDATE 18th October 2012

We just had a message from Sky saying that the router actually features just 2 MIMO aerials inside and not 4 as they originally stated.